Venezuela: ‘We Are Using the Exemplary Model for the Emancipation of Humanity’

AFP Ronaldo SCHEMIDTFRANCES MARTEL29 Aug 2017

On the front page of Venezuela’s state media outlet VTV Tuesday, an article lauded the impoverished socialist nation as an “exemplary model for the emancipation of humanity.”

The article quoted former foreign minister Delcy Rodríguez, now the president of the “national constituent assembly” (ANC), a fraudulent body created by socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro to replace the democratically-elected National Assembly. The Venezuelan constitution grants the National Assembly the nation’s federal legislative power.

“In Venezuela, we are using the exemplary model for the emancipation and liberation of humanity,” Rodríguez said in remarks Tuesday before announcing that the ANC would hold elections in October and begin drafting a bill to allow the government to act against corporations who post “hate speech” on social media. Rodríguez did not elaborate on the socialist regime’s definition of “hate speech,” only claiming that the United States and its allies are waging a “psychological war” in Venezuela.

An empty supermarket is pictured in Caracas on May 28, 2016. The shortage of basic foodstuffs in Venezuela exceeds 80 percent, a survey revealed. JUAN BARRETO/AFP/Getty Images

Venezuela’s “exemplary model” of socialism on the globe has done nothing less than emancipate humanity. Its socialist political system has made a crime of protesting the dire shortages the country faces, with civilian, unarmed protesters facing military tribunals for crimes such as “treason.” 157 people have died while participating in protests since April, most killed by the nation’s military.

The nation boasts one of the world’s worst inflation rates – estimated at 741 percent annually in a recent Forbes column – devaluing the bolívar currency to such an extent that one U.S. dollar is now worth 17,562.56 bolivars, according to the currency tracking site Dolar Today. This has translated into the beginnings of a famine, with Venezuelans suffering years of shortages of basic food items like flour, vegetable oil, and butter. Anything more “luxury” than these products go for nearly a monthly minimum wage salary (currently at 97,531 bolivars, or less than $6). From CNN:

Skippy’s crunchy peanut butter costs 82,600 bolivars. A bag of Illy coffee is 70,500. Pop-Tarts cost half a month’s minimum wage, apple juice one-quarter. The price of Barrilla pasta has doubled this year to 8,860 bolivars from 4,000, according to the store manager, Juan Jose Sousa.

Medicine is so scarce that Venezuelans are relying on veterinary drugs to survive, just as they have taken to eating zoo animals.

Venezuela was once the wealthiest nation in South America before the socialist regime of late dictator Hugo Chávez took power.

In this Sept. 12, 2016 photo, a girl sits in a supermarket cart as she waits for her dad at the market he works at in Porlamar, Venezuela. The child’s father Alexander Velasquez spent the afternoon asking for food donations from vendors at Conejero market where he works as a porter. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)